Monday, October 18

Bill and I took the train out from Sarlat together early this morning. It was cold and dark and damp. Somewhere along the line during our short 10 mile hike yesterday, my ankle became distressed. My viewpoint may be a tad colored by the fact that I will be going on to Paris alone.

Bill and I changed for different trains at Bordeaux. He is heading out for Bayonne and I am typing from the TGV bound for Montpanasse station in Paris. I hope to meet up with Alan Hammes before catching the train to the airport

Let me tell you what's neat- being able to log onto the Delta internet page to check on my medallion status while sitting on the TGV! The blackberry device rocks.

The trip was really quite a success - I'm glad we did it.

Day 5 of the Hike: Vitrac to Sarlat

We woke up for the first time to the sound of pouring rain. We held up a little in what was shown to be a somewhat shorter hike than the last several. When the rain slackened we started out hitting very early th day's highlight -- a visit ti Montfort. There a chateau sat astride the clifts. Much film wasd used to.capture the full effect and more later was used to capture the Dordogne river's most attractive stretch. With any missteps rapidly corrected we were surprised that the trip was taking as long as it did but when we stopped for lunch after some serious walking we had still a good half of the stated distance left. We ate quickly as the rain was coming and also recognizing that we were sitting on a woman's stone wall and she was puttering around. We diid caught by the mid afternnon showers but made it to Sarlat by 3 and navigated to the hotel 30 minutes later. The hotel had a heated enclosed pool where Bill did a few laps. Lin read a book by the poolside. We decided to do italian I our first dinner on our own. The restaurant was clearly downscale froim what we had bee treated to. Lin made up for a bad blue cheese-dominating 4cheese tagliatelle by consuming a banana split that should have served 4 people.

Day S of the hike - Beynac to Vitrac

We were hoping that our luck would hold out again and that we wouldn't get lost on today's hike. Adding 5-8 km to a long day is no fun.

First thing in the morning, we got to do an extended visit to the Catslenaud Castle. It looks over the Dordogne valley and you can see the Chateau Beynac in the distance. This was the castle where the English army stayed while they attacked the French in Beynac. (We went to visit Beynac yesterday after resting our legs for a bit.). We skipped the gardens. The Castlenaud Castle is now a museum dedicated to arms in the middle ages- Lin loved all the cross bows and trebuchet engines.

We went on to La Roque Gageac- a village built against the cliffs. We arrived with no problem.Unfortunately, the directions didn't say to get off the offical Grand Randonee trail so we kept going (almost straight uphill) through serious forest to reach the top of the mountain before admitting that we had screwed up. (Pretty much Lin's fault completetly-oops.).
We had a picnic lunch at the foot of the mountain and blew through La Roque Gageac village in pretty poor humor.

We walked on to Domme with only a slight delay as we made our way through some poorly written directions. The view was lovely but we didn't spend much time. A memorable event for Lin- the public toilets stole her money. From the graffiti on the doors, it seems others had issues using the facilities in the past as well.

More issues with poorly written directions once we left the town meant we lost more time before figuring out which path it was that we were supposed to take. (We were a little cranky at this juncture.)

We arrived at Vitrac by 5:30 pm and checked into the very charming Hotel
Laisance in Le Port. Our room was absolutely HUGE and there was a jacuzzi!!! Heaven! With our spirits restored, we went to dinner and had a great time.

Dinner at Hotel du Chateau in Beynac

The hotel is right at the entrance to the town and run by a lovely young couple- both of whom speak English excellently. (Bill was a little disappointed to hear English at all but the gentlemen came to a compromise. They spoke to Bill in French and in English to Lin). Lin was happy enough.
Dinner, as we have come to expect was a 5 course meal and really good. It specialized in the food of the region, making it a tad difficult for Bill to choose a reasonable meal again. We both had garlic soup- really tasty.
Lin had froie gras (pretty good but more than she needed) Bill had the Perigorf salad which had a little bit of everything on a bed of greens. He left the cold froie gras and almost everything else but ate what looked to be duck/goose giblets. The steak was plentiful and delicious followed by chvre chaud. Dessert was choloclate and strawberry ice cream with fresh whipped cream for Bill while Lin had a creme brulee.
We are hoping the mega hiking in the sprinkling rain is enough to offset the meal.

Day 3 of hiking- Les Eyzies de Tayac to Beynac

Well, the good thing is that we didn't get lost at all today. We had breakfast at 8 am and made it to Beyac by 2:50 pm. In the interim, we hiked through beautiful farm country in river valleys, through mountains - where we picnicked at a twelfth century church- and through forests. We didn't get to feed any goats but we had lively conversations with sheep and geese along the way.

Beynac is a pictesque but tiny medival town capped by a castle called wait for it- Chateau de Beynac. The entrance to the town is about three storefronts wide and tbe rest of it is almost vertical up the mountain side. Very steep, slick Tbecause of the rain) and yellow.
It was a good visit.

We're staying at the very small and simple Hotel du Chateau.

More to come.

Day 2 of hiking

We were picked up by cab and brought to St. Leon sur Vezere. The bags went on by cab to the hotel in Les Eyzyes de Tayac. We walked over the bridge built by Eiffel and began our journey. Sue enough, we soon got lost in the trails of the Dordorgne. We did come to realize, however, that the fault may not have been all ours.

The directions given to us by the tour company are translated from French and we saw there was at least one instance where they got left and right incorrect.

We lost only about an hour's worth of walking and made it to Roque St. Christophe- the prehistoric cave dwellings later used in the Middle Ages. It was also our first walk in the autumnal rain. A little discouraged but determined to catch up, we marched on.

Lin was a little cranky by 2 pm when we were still walking (having stopped by a small store to pick up bread, cheese and chips). We had already snacked 'on the hoof' on chips and apples. Bill decided that the better part of valor included taking a rest stop. Almost immediately after a quick lunch, we saw some goats and Lin fed them an apple. That was fun.

We did a major hike through the woods on faith that the directions and the map were correct and made it to the hotel at the expected time.

The Hotel Le Moulin de la Beune was a former water mill and very charming. Our bags were waiting for us in our room - on the third floor (six if you count the half floors)! While quite simple and very cold (Lin didn't find the radiator controls until after dinner) the room was very comfortable.

We bought three bottles of local wine in town - red, rose and white. The rose was very nice and we polished it off before dinner. We skipped on the local and ever popular foie gras.

Dinner was extraordinary. - we had dinner included in our tour package but Lin upgraded hers and Bill decided on getting steak and dessert instead. Lin ordered a 6 course meal that also included a small bottle of wine. It was very funny that Bill sat there as course after course was served to her. :-)
The restaurant did take pity and gave him some of the wine although Bill thought the waiter was a bit grudging. They also sent him an amuse bouche of light goat cheese with chocolate. Lin shared her rissotto with truffles. Everything was swimming in butter and was great. You'd think dessert after so many rich courses would be too much but you'd be wrong! Yummy, is all I'm saying.

We slept 9 hours, exhausted from the hike and filled to the brim with dinner and wine.

Montignac to Thonac (eventually)

After a hearty breakfast we set off on our hike not knowing if the day would warm up from the 50 or so it started. We found the caves of Lascaux with minimal problem as Lin was initially adept at deciphering ambiguous directions. Our tour was in French which Bill followed reaonably well. The visual aids the guide used were useful in focusing on the cave pictures he was describing. After the tour Bill was down to tee shirt and shorts and Lin shed her scarf from her jeans, shirt, sweater ensemble. We strode smartly through what we thought to be the designed hike. After some creeping uncertainty we became aware that we had pretty much gone in a circle. Not to be defeated we found an alternative course along the Vezere river that got us to Thonac 15 minutes before the. 5 o'clock pickup. We were not disqualified from the Amazing Race.

train trip for all seasons

As Lin slept Bill got to observe the full range of weather possibilities as the train chugged south. There was ok weather. There was moderate rain. There was bright sunshine. There was a torrential downpour. I figured unless we encountered a plague of locusts or a majestic rainbow. I would just let Lin sleep.

Montignac

We were whisked by prearranged taxi from Brive to our hotel in Montignac arriving circa 3 in perfect 80 degree weather. After exploriing the town with its obligatory chateau we repaired to the pool area for wine and grapes. Dinner turned out to be fancy. One of us worried about his/her wardrobe. One of us did not even shave. We both were served. Glorious 4 course meals. We will walk them off tomorrow. Lin's heated chocolate cake will require an extra klik or two.

Saturday, Oct 10

We're on the trin to Brive after touching doen in Paris and taking the RER into Gare Austerlitz.

The train is surprisingly full. It's great that our Blackberries are fully functional.

Saturday, Oct 10

We're on the trin to Brive after touching doen in Paris and taking the RER into Gare Austerlitz.

The train is surprisingly full. It's great that our Blackberries are fully functional.